How many of my liberal friends currently gathered excitedly around TVs watching the inauguration also watched Bush’s inauguration? (I want it noted for the record that I’ve watched or listened to every inauguration since Clinton’s first. I probably also watched the ones before that but I don’t recall.)
An inauguration is important to our country, and is historical, and is no less important because the person being sworn in is not the person you wanted.
And, well, smacking down on the former president at your inauguration? Yeah, classy.
The View From Here 
I did not watch either of the Bush inaugurals. I didn’t watch the Clinton inaugurals either. I was living overseas in 1993, 1997 and 2001.
But I didn’t watch Poppy Bush’s inaugural either, as far as I can remember.
I did watch today. I did not catch whatever smackdown you perceived in the speech.
As far as classy, how about making up lies about the Clintons supposedly trashing the White House and stealing property when they moved out?
Also, how about Steve King refusing to participate in the inaugural party that is being jointly hosted by all the other members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation?
If Steve King is refusing to participate in the jointly hosted party, he is also not classy.
Wash Times article about Obama smackdown: http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/21/curl-obama-repudiates-bush-era-in-address/
Actually not even the comment I was referring to.
From what research I could do, the stolen W’s and other items were not made up. Also, I found out that King was refusing to participate because he thought it was wasteful spending in a time of financial “crisis.” One can debate whether that’s the truth or not, but that’s somewhat more admirable than refusing to attend out of spite. I had heard news reports that this inauguration is the most expensive in history (twice or more as expensive as Bush’s first), and had thought (and discussed with DH) vaguely the same thing that King apparently said – Wow, that’s a lot of money to be spending at a time when the government is calling for Americans to sacrifice for their fellow Americans, bailing out industries and people who took out mortgages they couldn’t afford, etc.
If King is also going to take a stand against other forms of wasteful spending (or if he has a track record of doing so), this action makes perfect sense, and he would possibly feel/look like a hyopcrite for pretending that the expense of the parties doesn’t matter. If this is a stand-alone decision and he ignores wasteful spending otherwise, then it just looks like sour grapes. I dont’ follow his career that much since I’m not in his district and what I think about him ultimately doesn’t matter.
I watched today, and I watched all of the one’s before that that I can remember. I think that I remember feeling sad and disappointed for the last two go rounds. And my guess would be, that the last time that the office changed hands there was the same kinds of responses on the other side of the fence. It’s not a liberal or a conservative thing to do, it’s human nature. The last time was the conservatives turn to party and feel like the country was headed for great things in their book. This time the more liberal crowd gets to feel elated. But, the thing that I like about this man, is that he makes it so that most everyone can feel elated. Not just liberals. Most of my conservative friends also feel like he is going to do some great things. And my very conservative parents don’t much like the way things ended with Bush either. It’s human nature. It sucks, but it is exactly what it is.
Happy Inauguration Day! Obama’s election is truly a reason to be hopeful, and proud
And why is that?
Laurie B,
Why do you act like you don’t know how to navigate the Internet whenever it comes to finding/proving something that makes a Democrat look bad?
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/t/trashingthewhitehouse.htm
FTR, Steve King said he believed it would be reckless for him to spend campaign contributions on a party for Obama, i.e. that his supporters would disapprove. And, yes, I would!
It’s mind-blowing that someone who repeatedly calls King a racist, and links to other bloggers who use infantile, vulgar language to describe their dislike for the man, has the nerve to say that Steve King has no class.